I am a seasoned employee also.  I have been a hiring manager, but insmall retail establishments, so I'm afraid I can't help you muchthere.  A big part of the problems we see, as a job seeker and not amanager, is that most of the articles and books written about getting ajob are written by, for, and about, executives.  (That's one of the reasons I am writing a book on the subject, one for the rest of us. Isn't it a hoot, though, that I'm writing a book on getting a job, and I can't get one? But that gives me the time to write it now. )  A lot of these peoplelive in their own little world but believe that everyone else lives intheir world, too. Most of us live in a totally different world.  I havenot spent any money on my resume, what money we have goes to living,but I have changed it to follow the expert's guidelines, and stillnothing.  For some time it has been illegal to ask any question in aninterview that refers to age, but I, too, have noticed on manyapplications that they ask if you are "over 39" etc, and on some arequired field is birth date, so do you think they have to ask? Unfortunately, some of it is the market.  A couple of years ago acompany came to our area that was expecting to do a three-day job fair,but all applications were gone within an hour.  Last month Michiganlost another 30,000 jobs.  That's another 30,000 we're competing withfor jobs that don't exist.  Many managers I have interviewed withworked their way up and don't have a college education.  They havenever read any of these books and articles on what they keep telling uswe need to do to get hired, so they have no idea what supposedly goeson in the interview process, etc.  Each manager is different, each hastheir own personality and idea of what they are looking for, or noidea.  I had a couple of interviewers tell me their company doesn't doany training any more.  They were looking for someone that were aperfect match for the position, someone who had the same systems, thatalready had experience exactly as others working there already.  (Whydon't they just have a present employee fill the position?)  They oftendo, even though they go about all the steps for hiring from outside. About the last thing I do at an interview is ask what the mostimportant qualities and/or skills for the job are to make sure Iaddress these areas.  In an interview with one of the nations leadingdrug store chains, the man told me the most important thing was abachelor's degree.  On my resume it was clearly stated that I had anassociate's degree, so why did he waste my time and his?  A couple oftimes I have also had my time and their's wasted, not to mention thegasoline expense, for part-time jobs when I had specifically appliedfor management positions.  Why would anyone think that I might beinterested in part-time minimum wage in those circumstances. I had oneinterviewer ask me if I thought about going back to school to get abachelor's degree.  I told her that it just wasn't something I could doright now.  But why should I?  I have had a hard enough time getting ajob already, many times because I have been over-qualified.  And couldanyone tell me just how much more going to college for two more yearswould give me that 13 years management experience hasn't?

Sorry, I know I haven't been much help, just adding more thoughts on these subjects.  I would live to have the answers, but I'm not sure if anyone has the answers.  Otherwise, wouldn't we all have jobs?